How Image Search can
Revolutionize Your eStore?

Image search has made revolutionary changes in the way searches are carried on the web. Not just that it becomes easier to find the exact match of the products, image search increases the average order per customer through providing store like experience. Hence, improving sales conversions on the e-commerce website.
Technologies are advancing exponentially and every now and then, we hear about new discoveries changing the face of the internet. These days, e-commerce has taken over the market. We find anything and everything online. According to statistics, in 2018 global e-retail sales amounted to 2.8 trillion U.S. dollars. It is believed that by 2021, the growth is expected to reach up to 4.8 trillion U.S. dollars.

What is Image Search?

While the consumers are shifting to the online store, the need for improvising the search options are growing even faster. Image search means that the users search and the images are reverted back to the users. In E-commerce, businesses utilize the sub-category of image search which is known as reverse image search. In this search category, an image or URL of the image is used to search for the products. This search provides the results associated with the image.
Recently, eBay, one of the largest internet company in the world has started image search technology on its platform. With this technology, a user can search through an image. If you do not know what you are looking for, why not take a picture and let eBay suggest you the choices. eBay is using the technology to help people get what they want even if they have trouble explaining it.
Image search has given e-commerce a new way to define their search results. It is no brainer that the number of smartphone users is surging and so does the power of users to access images for the search results. Hence, including image search technology must be taken seriously to reap the best benefits.

Importance of images in user experience

It is rightly said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Humans interpret images easier than plain text. It takes no time for users to process images and act instantly. Not just that pictures look beautiful, they have a lot of influence on users. When it comes to e-commerce, apart from the reviews, users tend to check product image from as many angles as possible to finally choose the product.
The image provides easy and fastest information. Avoiding one to scroll through pages, image makes a lot of difference in influencing user’s choice. Including images is powerful advertising strategy for any business online, however, one should ensure that the images are chosen correctly. An image has the authority to make or break the entire experience of a user.
In short, our minds are hardwired to process an image faster than any form of communication. Hence, an image will do way more justice to your brand than a few words. For businesses, it becomes easy to send messages across to its users by utilizing the power of images.

Types of Search Mechanisms Available in E-Commerce

The searches are based on queries consumers use to search for the products. There could be many types, however, these four listed below are used most often:
Exact Query Search: In this query type, a user knows exactly what he wants. So, the search results aren’t difficult to find as long as the precision is taken care of. Sometimes, it does happen the product is stocked but the search results have difficulty populating it. This term is quoted as Abandonment where the products are shown out of stock when they are actually available.
Generic Product Search: Here, the customers have some idea about their preferences and are looking for bits of advice. In such cases, the search query must show an appropriate range of options for helping users to get to their product.
Qualified Product Search: The search queries, irrelevant to their form (exact or generic) are governed by a large number of attributes or qualifies. For example, a dress can have various qualifiers such as color, length, size, price range, and a lot of others. If a consumer uses too many qualifiers, the search engines sometimes fail to interpret the same while being unable to match those qualifiers to the right fields. Hence, smart search is very important for every e-commerce business for providing their customers with the best online shopping experience.
Symptomatic Search: Sometimes users can create problems for search engines by telling them the problem instead of the product they are looking for. For example, low blood pressure treatment.
Think of all the above scenario and then the resolution image search technology can provide for all the search results. Image search could bring the closest option to the consumers in a matter of a few seconds.

Examples of Image Search

By now, we already have a brief idea about what image search technology is and how it can improve search within e-commerce as well as other businesses around the globe. So, here are a few big names who have already started working on this technology and bringing more options for their users.
ASOS: The company does not need an introduction. A well-known name among fashion giants, ASOS does make the right choices all the time and this time, its about including visual search in its strategies.
Boohoo: Boohoo has introduced image search for its users. This retail online shop has huge inventory and helping customers find that one needle from the stack of hay is what Boohoo aims. And, it has very much succeeded in doing so. The users have to upload pictures and similar styles would be populated on the screen. It cannot get easier than this.
Amazon: How can the world’s one of the largest e-commerce giants can stay away from the wave when every other company is trying to work out their visual search implementation. Amazon added its image browsing search for few of its categories. The app called Amazon scout was released last year. Amazon users can like and dislike among various preferences and based on those preferences, Amazon gets them the closest match to the pictures they liked.

Benefits of Image Search

Optimizing your search results will help your business go a long way. Image search technology offers an array of benefits not only to the users but also to the e-commerce platforms.
Skip Typing Keywords: This technology is providing great tools for online shoppers. By using the images, one can find the exact match of the products they are looking for. If not exact, the closest match for the specific items. Instead of typing all the different keywords and trying various times to find out that specific item, one can simply upload the image and find the related results just like that.
On the Go Shopping: With this technology, users will take less time to look for the specific results. On the go, if one likes something, all he has to do is click the picture and look for the right options.
No Need to Look for Categories: Users feel intimidated when not able to find the right category to search for the specific item. Navigating through all the categories to find the listing of the right item is very daunting. And, image search will allow your user to skip that part and let the search engine do the task.
The Conclusion
Online shopping has a history of going through steep changes. And, the trend will continue to flourish. The users will seek more reliable platforms and the one that’s easily accessible for search results. As the new technologies will replace the old ones, the demand for its implementation will always have its say. With so many options available, users take no time in abandoning the ones they used before.
And, as businesses, we will never like that to happen. E-commerce businesses always strive to provide the best online experience to our customers. When it is about an e-commerce website, a lot depends on the accessibility of the products. Among all those thousands and millions of listing, finding that one exact match isn’t easy. There are times when users leave the website without making any purchase. All because the search query failed to list the right option.
Image search technology can help get rid of those abandonments. Providing your customers with a better shopping experience, image search technology is important for your business growth. Either you stay in the business, or face the consequences of not using image search, the choice is yours.
If you decide to make image search a reality for your e-commerce business, i95Dev can make all this possible for you. Connect with us right away to know more about image search and how it can be utilized for the betterment of your e-commerce business.